My View of Life - Never Better!

Though Your Sins be as Scarlet

Over the last several weeks I've experienced an unsettling event. People close to me were involved in a setting that triggered the following remarks. "This person is so vile so evil I don't want to ever see him again. I now know his true colors. He's always been this way but I just didn't see it, and he'll always be that way. You can't change the spots on a leopard."

These remarks fell at my feet. They didn't resonate with me in the least. I've known these individuals for a good while, and, with my nearly 60 years of perspective, and a powerful testimony of Jesus Christ and his nature, I disagreed. Furthermore, I've seen tremendous growth in each of these two children of God.

I asked the one who was offended. "If this person can't be changed, for what purpose was the mission of our Savior?" He responded with a number of rationalizations. "Okay then, I'll tell you what our Savior does for him, and you and me. A favorite scripture."

Isaiah 1: 18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

I asked, "what do you think of that? "Well, I still don't trust him."

Yes, I admit, once the wool is bathed in the crimson dye, it seems impossible to remove. But not so with the Lord. In fact, that is the very purpose of our Savior. He is the good news proclaimed by the angel at the time of his mortal birth.

And what is this good news that we all hope for and long for? We were given a Savior by our Heavenly Father. No longer will we endure for eternity the buffetings of Satan because of our sins. No longer do we suffer the sting of death. We have a Savior!

But it is even much more than that. He is not a Savior that has this great power to throw all of us billions of kids a life line and say, "grab on, I'll pull you to safety." He gets right in the trenches with us.

Another favorite scripture found in Isaiah 53:

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: he was wounded

for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of

our peace was upon him.

He tread the olive press alone. Just as the olives were crushed with such severe pressure that the oil flowed, so was our Savior crushed with our sin, suffering and pain that his blood flowed. This suffering he experienced in our behalf, how excruciating we cannot comprehend, but this much we can.

He descended below our worst pain and suffering so he knows just how to lift us up.

But it's even more than this! It was not necessarily the cumulative weight of all our sins and pain that caused his blood to flow, somehow, some way he suffered individually for each of us. Experiencing every high and every low of our lives, every set back, agony, remorse, giving in to sin, every pain-all of it, to every tiny detail just for individual you and me.

Another favorite scripture:

Deuteronomy 2: 7 For the Lord thy God hath blessed thee in all the works

of thy hand: he knoweth thy walking through this great wilderness: these

forty years the Lord thy god hath been with thee; thou hast lacked nothing.

Our Savior is right there with us each moment of every day. We lack nothing. I think it's better understood when we think of our Savior's atonement as "at one ment" with us.

Does this give you some idea of the love Jesus has for you and he who has offended you? Do you stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers you? Do you believe he loves you that much?

And now the answer that comes nearly every time. No, I don't believe he could love me so much that he would do all that for me. I'm too vial to save. I'm not worth it.

My answer to him is "believe it!" And marvel that he would descend from his throne divine to rescue a soul so rebellious and proud as yours and mine.

Grab hold of his outstretched hand and repent of your prior behavior starting with not believing in the love your Savior has for you. I testify that he is mighty to save. He can help you and he who offended you into a renewed, refined, pure and worthy child of almighty God. Cast your burden at his feet for his grace is sufficient to own, to redeem and justify you.

You do so, and there will come a day when you can cast yourself at his feet, and bathe them with your tears, praising and adoring him for what he has done for you. You and he who offended you are his work and his glory. You are everything to him. I so testify in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.